JAPANESE BOMB 2 PORTS IN INDIA; GAIN IN HEAVY FIGHTING ON BATAAN (4/7/42)

Microfilm-New York Times archives, Monterey Public Library | 4/7/42 | Charles Hurd, Harrison Forman, Robert P. Post, Hanson W. Baldwin

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents World War II Plus 70 Years: Seminar and Discussion Forum
First session: September 1, 2009. Last date to add: September 2, 2015.
Reading assignment: New York Times articles delivered daily to students on the 70th anniversary of original publication date. (Previously posted articles can be found by searching on keyword “realtime” Or view Homer’s posting history .)
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by freepmail. Those on the Realtime +/- 70 Years ping list are automatically enrolled. Course description, prerequisites and tuition information is available at the bottom of Homer’s profile. Also visit our general discussion thread

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Selections from West Point Atlas for the Second World War
Battle of Bataan, 1942
The Far East and the Pacific, 1941 – American Carrier Operations, 7 December 1941-18 April 1942
Micronesia, Melanesia and New Guinea: Japanese Centrifugal Offensive-Japanese Fourth Fleet and South Seas Detachment Operations, December 1941-April 1942
Luzon, P.I., 1941: Centrifugal Offensive, 10 December 1941-6 May 1942-Fourteenth Army Operations on Luzon
Netherlands East Indies, 1941: Japanese Centrifugal Offensive, December 1941-April 1942, Sixteenth Army and Southern Force (Navy) Operations
Southern Asia, 1941: Japanese Centrifugal Offensive (and Continued Operations), January-May 1942
Eastern Europe, 1941: Soviet Winter Offensive – Operations, 6 December 1941-7 May 1942
North Africa, 1940: Rommel’s Second Offensive, 21 January-7 July 1942

[Homer_J_Simpson]

John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945

[Homer_J_Simpson]

The war situation looks bleak for the allies now but on this date Homer’s father signed up with the United States Army in Baker Oregon, thereby ensuring eventual victory for America and her allies. According to Homer’s father’s younger sister, after December 7th Homer’s father and friends marched down to the navy recruiting office to sign up in order to avenge the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Grandpa Simpson failed the physical due to his less than perfect dental condition. He learned later that the Army was more open-minded about such things. So on April 7, 1942 he took the oath and, with other eastern Oregon army recruits, boarded a train for California.

Madras Cities Hit – 2-3
Advance is Costly (Hurd) – 3-4
War News Summarized – 3
Mandalay Ruined by Enemy Bombs (Forman) – 4-5
New Delay on India Buoys British Hopes (Post) – 5-6
Nazi Warship Discovered by R.A.F. in Norwegian Fjord (photo) – 7
Texts of the Day’s War Communiques – 8-9
The Battle for Burma (Baldwin extra) – 9

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1942/mar42/f07mar42.htm

British abandon Rangoon
Saturday, March 7, 1942 www.onwar.com

British destroy supplies before retreatingIn Burma... The British troops leave Rangoon and Pegu, retiring north. The fall of port at Rangoon means that all Allied supplies must be brought in overland from India. By nightfall, the Japanese 33rd Division occupies the city.

In the Dutch East Indies... Japanese forces takes Surabaya and Lembang on Java

In New Guinea... The Japanese invasion forces land in the Salamaua area.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm

April 7th, 1942 (TUESDAY)

GERMANY: Three Catholic priests and Karl Friedrich Stellbrink, a protestant theologian and Evangelist minister in Lübeck, are arrested for anti-Nazi activities. Stellbrink will be executed on 10 November 1943 in Hamburg.

NORWAY: Oslo: In a mass demonstration of protest 654 of Norway’s 699 Lutheran clergymen, resigned today, Easter Sunday, from their positions as civil servants employed by the Quisling ministry for church and education. They will continue to minister to their congregations “so far as this is possible ... in accordance with the Holy Scripture, the Creed and the Altar Book.”

In a declaration read from pulpits throughout Norway, the clergy emphasized the supremacy of God rather than of political ideologies. They said they had acted “with a heavy heart” for the sake of the Christian life of the Norwegian people.

The resignations are reported to have shaken the puppet government, which has been trying to force government employees into a Nazi-style Labour Front. Quisling called a hasty meeting of ministers. Afterwards a spokesman said: “It is an act of revolt, a declaration of war.” The leaders of the campaign would be punished, he said.

U.S.S.R.: Soviet Army troops force a very narrow corridor to Leningrad, opening a tenuous rail link to the city. Trains run into the city with desperately needed supplies and came out with civilians and the wounded, all under heavy artillery fire from the Germans. (Jack McKillop)

The Soviet Navy lists submarine M-176 Northern Fleet Varangerfjord (lost off Norwegian coast, former M-93) (Mike Yared)

BURMA: IJA 18th Division arrives in Rangoon from Singapore.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: On Bataan, the Japanese, attacking again in the II Corps area with air and artillery support, force the entire corps main line of resistance back to the Mamala River line; this line, too, becomes untenable, and Americans and Filipinos withdraw under cover of darkness, during the night of the 7th/8th, to the Alangan River. The 26th Cavalry, Philippine Scouts, released to the II Corps from the I Corps reserve, establishes a holding position while the line is formed along the Mamala River. Meanwhile, attempts by Philippine Division units to form a continuous line prove futile. Philippine Constabulary regiments defending the beaches are ordered into the battle line. The I Corps is directed to withdraw southward to the Binuangan River line. (John Nicholas and Jack McKillop)

The remaining USAAF P-40 fighters on Bataan are ordered flown to Mindanao Island. During the next three days, the P-40s will fly reconnaissance, cover heavy bombers sent to Mindanao from Australia operating against concentrations at Legaspi, Cebu, Iloilo, and Davao, and carry out a strafing attack aircraft at Davao. After the heavy bombers return to Australia on 12 April, the fighters will continue to fly reconnaissance until Japanese forces envelop the troops on Mindanao on 1 May. (Jack McKillop)

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: By proclamation, the 263 Japanese-Americans living in the territory are notified that they may be relocated to the continental U.S. (Jack McKillop)

U.S.A.: The War Department officially states that the 8th Air Force will be established in the UK as an intermediate command between US Army Forces in British Isles (USAFBI) and the AAF commands. General George C Marshall notifies Major General James E Chaney, Commanding General of USAFBI, of this decision. (Jack McKillop)

[texanyankee]

Like your father, my Dad signed up on this date - 70 years ago.

He joined the Coast Guard. Amazingly, he didnt know how to swim & he for the rest of his life, he never learned.

He never spoke much about the war, but the little I learned was that he started his service by training at Algiers, LA before being shipped off to San Pedro, CA. From there, he eventually was assigned to the newly commissioned troop transport - USS Arthur Middleton.

My Dad - one of the few photos of him during the war:

[iowamark]

My father worked at a boiler/turbine factory when WWII began. (His widowed mother also walked down there every night to clean the offices.) When the Navy started the Seabees (Construction Battalions), he was interested in joining. His foreman made a speech ordering him not to enlist. So my Dad couldn’t wait to walk down to the recruiting office during his lunch break to enlist and come back to tell his foreman.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Nice picture. I didn’t know that troop transports were manned by Coast Guard. One is exactly how many pictures I have of my father taken during the war, although I have a few he or one of his friends took of other people in New Guinea. They only way I know the exact date his service began is a certificate I got from the records archives. All his other records and those of millions of other people who served in the war were lost in a fire in St. Louis on July 12, 1973. A national treasure was lost that day,

[Homer_J_Simpson]

I hope you have some history of your father’s Seabee career you can share when the time is right. I understand the construction crews were preparing landing fields on captured islands while the shooting was still going on. Do you know when the Seabee’s were started up? I have seen the John Wayne movie on the subject a couple times but I don’t think the script gives any dates.

[texanyankee]

I wish I had more more pics of him. I do have at least 2 more of him dressed in his uniform - strictly portrait shots.

My Dad did write a brief history of his stint in WWII - not much in detail, but priceless nonetheless.

I recall as a small kid seeing his uniform folded up in the cedar chest. I used to play with his “sailor cap” - that’s long since disappeared.

I know that our Coast Guard basically operated the troop transport ships that took our Marines island hopping in the Pacific. My Dad operated one of the landing craft that took Marines to the lagoons and then he took back our wounded & even a few Jap prisoners back to his ship.

[M1903A1]

Haven’t some of those lost records subsequently been found on microfilm?

[Homer_J_Simpson]

It doesn’t sound like it here.

http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/fire-1973.html

I made my request for records in 1994, long after the salvage efforts.